The moonlight filtered through the narrow cracks in the stone wall, casting long shadows on the floor of Sienna's chamber. She sat at her desk, the weight of Elara's words still pressing on her chest like an iron shackle. "You’re the key," the woman had said. The only one who could stop the Council’s plans. But was that true? Or was Elara simply manipulating her as the Council had always done?
Her fingers trembled as they brushed over the scroll in front of her. It was a map, or at least part of one, half-filled with cryptic runes she couldn’t decipher. It was all that remained of the ancient texts she had inherited from her mother. The runes, the secrets hidden beneath her collar, and the lingering sensation of something greater. Something dark. The First Queen’s influence was still ther
